University of Missouri - Sinclair School of Nursing

Welcome

The philosophy of the MU Sinclair School of Nursing is derived from a synthesis of beliefs and values shared by faculty, staff, students, alumni and clinical associates concerning nursing, nursing education, nursing students and the university.

We believe that a dynamic statement of philosophy serves as the foundation for determining the nature, purposes and priorities of all programs, activities and directions within the school.

The philosophy of the MU Sinclair School of Nursing is derived from a synthesis of beliefs and values shared by faculty, staff, students, alumni and clinical associates concerning nursing, nursing education, nursing students and the university.

We believe that a dynamic statement of philosophy serves as the foundation for determining the nature, purposes and priorities of all programs, activities and directions within the school.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (February 1, 2017) ― University of Missouri Health Care is working on a “cure” for the shortage of nurses and health care professionals in central Missouri.

The health system announced a recruitment and retention plan for 2017 to attract more nurses and health professionals to Columbia.

One of the most unique features of the plan for 2017 is a student loan repayment program.

“Many nurses and health professionals worry about student loans, and beginning March 1, we will offer $10,000 toward student loan debt for nurses and health professionals who agree to work in clinical units where we are experiencing high patient volumes,” said Peter Callan, director of talent acquisition for MU Health Care.

The student loan repayment plan will also be available to nurses and other health care professionals who presently work at MU Health Care in specific high-volume areas.

New hires and current employees who qualify for the student loan repayment program will receive monthly payments of $166.66 directly applied to their loan principal, up to a total of $10,000.

“Our patient volumes have been trending upward for the last five years,” Callan said. “As an academic health center, MU Health Care receives patients from every county in the state of Missouri. With more than 600 physicians, we specialize in treating patients with the most complex illnesses and injuries. For that reason, community hospitals often transfer patients needing advanced specialty care to MU Health Care.”

“Our 2017 initiatives are designed to recruit and retain not only registered nurses and LPNs, but also respiratory therapists, certified medical assistants and genetic counselors,” Callan said.

Other incentives include:

· Beginning March 1, a retention reward will be offered to health care professionals who do not have student loans to repay. Qualified employees will receive $2,000 at the end of each year of service up to a total of $10,000. The retention award will also be available to nurses and health care professionals who presently work at MU Health Care in specific high-volume areas.

MU Health Care non-supervisory employees who successfully recruit a qualified health care experienced professional to work full time for MU Health Care will be entered into a drawing for an all-expenses-paid trip for four to Hawaii. The drawing will be held in early November.

· Beginning March 1, an enhanced weekend-only program will allow registered nurses who agree to work on weekends to earn $8 more per hour. Weekend nurses will work 47 weekends per year, one weekend less than previously required. This enhanced weekend program will enable more nurses to work the shifts they desire: weekends or weekdays.

In addition to the incentives, MU Health Care is also offering a registered nurse refresher course in 2017. The course is available to RNs who have left clinical care but want to return to work at the bedside. After a skills and general knowledge evaluation, RNs will receive paid training and then placed in one of the targeted areas.

“We were thrilled with the results of last year’s recruitment initiatives,” Callan said. “We designed our 2017 recruitment and retention initiative to build on our 2016 success. By adding incentives like a student loan repayment program and a retention reward, we are confident we will meet our expected need for RNs and health professionals in 2017.”

The 2016 recruitment and retention initiatives:

o Increased the recruitment of experienced registered nurses by 51 percent, from 77 to 116, from 2015 to 2016o Resulted in the hiring of 172 new nurse graduates in 2016o Resulted in 21 MU Health system employees earned $10,000 or $5,000 awards for recruiting registered nurses.o A staff nurse at Ellis Fischel Cancer Center won a drawing for a trip to Hawaii for referring a qualified nurse who was hired at MU Health Care. She plans to take her husband and her two children on the Hawaii trip this spring.

About University of Missouri Health CareAs part of the state’s premier academic medical center, University of Missouri Health Care offers a full spectrum of care, ranging from primary care to highly specialized, multidisciplinary treatment for patients with the most severe illnesses and injuries. Patients from each of Missouri’s 114 counties are served by approximately 6,000 physicians, nurses and health care professionals at MU Health Care. MU Health Care facilities include Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, the Missouri Orthopaedic Institute, the Missouri Psychiatric Center, University Hospital, and Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Columbia. Affiliates include Capital Region Medical Center in Jefferson City, Columbia Family Medicine Group, Columbia Surgical Associates, Fulton Medical Center and Rusk Rehabilitation Center. MU Health Care is a founding member of the Health Network of Missouri and MPact Health. More than 50 MU Health Care outpatient clinics in central Missouri receive outpatient visits exceeding 500,000 annually. For more information, visit University of Missouri Health Care

Helping the Voiceless

Unfortunately, intimate partner violence (IPV) is a sad reality for many throughout the state of Missouri and the United States. And many times, nurses are at the front lines of intervention. Throughout the Sinclair School of Nursing, faculty members are preparing student nurses to be attune to the signs of domestic violence and working to help victims.

Unfortunately, intimate partner violence (IPV) is a sad reality for many throughout the state of Missouri and the United States. And many times, nurses are at the front lines of intervention. Throughout the Sinclair School of Nursing, faculty members are preparing student nurses to be attune to the signs of domestic violence and working to help victims.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, intimate partner violence refers to any “physical, sexual or psychological harm by a current or former partner or spouse, which can occur among heterosexual or same-sex couples and does not require sexual intimacy.”

Throughout the U.S., it is estimated that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men have been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner. Outside of the harm in the immediate altercation, domestic violence can have long-standing effects on the victim’s physical and mental health. According to the CDC, women who experienced violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime were more likely to report having asthma, diabetes and irritable bowel syndrome. Both men and women who experience this kind of violence were more likely to report frequent headaches, chronic pain, difficulty with sleeping, activity limitations, poor physical health and poor mental health.

Therefore, it is likely all health care providers will encounter intimate partner violence during their career. However, according to Dr. Lea Wood, director of the Sinclair School of Nursing Essig Simulation Center, most health care providers lack the training needed to feel confident and competent in screening patients for IPV. To combat this incompetency, Dr. Wood created the IPV Training Program implemented in the Essig Simulation Center.

The IPV Training Program combines didactic and interactive learning. Students started the session by reviewing a presentation that discussed the prevalence, significance and epidemiology of IPV, the impact IPV has on the victim, health care provider and the health care industry, appropriate screening tools and interview techniques and general safely plan.

The students then moved into an experiential learning phase, wherein they watched an exemplary screening vignette, discussed interview strategies and reviewed an IPV resource card. Finally, students moved into the simulation center. Interacting with a standardized patient, the students had the opportunity to conduct an IPV screening interview, provide resources and collaborate with the patient to develop a safety plan. They then met as a group to debrief and discuss the effectiveness of different strategies they practiced.

While in their simulation training, students were taught to go beyond looking for the hallmark signs of IPV. The importance of routine screening for all patients was emphasized. Dr. Wood taught the students to conduct interviews with patients following some basic guidelines:

• Introduce the topic as a routine screening for all patients• Ask permission• Ensure confidentiality• Conduct the screening in a non-judgmental manner• Thank the client for answers• Validate patient responses empathetically• Offer resources and referrals as appropriate

Overall, students are finding this training to be both useful and necessary.

“The response from the students was overwhelmingly positive,” Dr. Wood says. “I have received several e-mails from students expressing gratitude for the experience and how it has benefited them in both clinical experiences and personal situations.”

The simulation training is already a staple in the undergraduate track, but because of the success and necessity of the training, the program is expanding. It now includes two simulation scenarios. The first is screening for IPV after signs of physical abuse were evident, and the second includes a male victim of emotional abuse. The training has now been integrated into the Doctor of Nursing Practice program in addition to the traditional undergraduate track.

Dr. Tina Bloom, who has spent much of her career dedicated to intimate partner violence work, believes health care providers should expand their knowledge of the issue.

“It is critically important that health care providers know about intimate partner violence and how to ask patients about it and how to effectively connect their patients with safety planning services,” she says. “First of all, we want our patients to get better and/or stay healthy, and partner violence is a serious issue in terms of abuse survivors’ physical and mental health. When we don’t address it, we don’t stand much of a chance of improving overall health outcomes for our patients. Secondly, people generally trust health care providers. We are in an almost unparalleled position to convey the incredibly powerful message to a person, who is likely isolated, frightened and ashamed, that no one deserves to be abused and that safety planning services are available that are free, confidential and can increase safety for abuse survivors and their children. Third, we know that survivors of intimate partner violence are very much with us in our health care systems. In fact, an abused woman is far more likely to be seen in a health care setting than to have contact with police.”

While preparing students to screen for IPV will help many in the future, Dr. Bloom is working on innovative but tangible ways now.

Working as a nurse in a very intense, busy, high-risk perinatal unit on the West Coast, Dr. Bloom’s career would be altered forever. She had been considering what to do as a next step in her career when her coworker got a job as a full-time research nurse for Dr. Mary Ann Curry. As it turned out, Dr. Curry actually needed two research nurses for the project, and Dr. Bloom’s coworker recommended her for the job.

Dr. Curry, who is an alumna of the Sinclair School of Nursing, was working on a large, randomized controlled trial of a nurse case management intervention for pregnant women who were abused by an intimate partner or at high risk for such abuse.

“I remember being absolutely blown away when I learned how common intimate partner violence actually is during pregnancy,” Dr. Bloom says. “How was it that something so harmful to maternal-child health was also something I’d never really learned about as a nurse? How was it that we didn’t really ask all these high-risk pregnant women about intimate partner violence?”

Dr. Bloom also credits Dr. Curry for pushing her to take the next step in her career.

“She was very generous with her mentorship and guidance and convinced me to start thinking about graduate school,” she says. “I wanted to learn how to prevent partner violence and make a meaningful difference for vulnerable pregnant women and children.”

Since that initial break, Dr. Bloom has continued to explore ways to protect those who have been abused. For the last decade, she has been working on an online program to assist battered women. This work started while she was in graduate school, working for Dr. Nancy Glass, a nurse-researcher who specializes in intimate partner violence. Dr. Glass and Dr. Karen Eden developed a safety planning decision aid for abused women.

“One of the critical issues in this field is safety planning with abused women, a dialogue where advocates and women identify her level of risk, her resources and her priorities and then make a plan for increasing her safety, which is quite effective to reduce violence exposure, but the vast majority of abused women don’t access services where they can receive safety planning,” Dr. Bloom says.

Therefore, the team decided to put the program on a laptop. Dr. Bloom beta-tested it for the programmer and then took it around to domestic violence shelters for abused women to test the program. The abuse survivors who tested the program responded to it positively, had less conflict about their safety decisions after just one time using it and thought it would be very useful to have it online, where they could access it privately and over time.

Since that initial study, Dr. Bloom has been part of the large, multidisciplinary, multi-site team Dr. Glass built to take this work further. The team adapted the safety planning decision aid for a web-based format in response to women’s feedback and conducted a large, NIH-funded randomized controlled trial of the intervention with 720 abused women, whom they followed for a year.

Dr. Bloom developed new tailored components of the decision aid for pregnant or postpartum women. She was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to test the feasibility and acceptability of the program with hard-to-reach pregnant women.

Most recently, the team has adapted the decision aid for college women, who are the highest risk age group for an abusive relationship, and developed a component that can be used by a friend or family who is concerned about a loved one’s relationship.

The team has also adapted the decision aid into a downloadable app for smartphone use, especially important in trying to reach college students. They are currently conducting a dissemination trial of the app with college students in order to learn which strategies are most effective to increase awareness of the app and to increase uptake and use of it. The program, called myPlan, will soon be available free for anyone to download as an app or use online.

“I’m very proud to be a part of this work,” Dr. Bloom says. “What we’ve learned overall is that the decision aid supports women’s safety planning efforts, that abused women can and will access safety planning information online or via smartphone safely, and that this program can be a really useful complement to existing safety services.”

For Dr. Bloom personally, the work has been her life’s calling.

“Talking to violence survivors, hearing their stories, witnessing their strength and designing and testing interventions that fit their priorities and needs is incredibly fulfilling.”

COLUMBIA, Mo. – According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1 million older Americans depend on nursing homes for their health care. The 16,000 nursing homes in the United States serve populations of all sizes; yet, according to new research from the University of Missouri, rural communities are lagging in health information technology (IT) needed to improve quality, safety and efficiency in health care. This gap could have implications for patient care as nursing homes in rural areas may have less capacity to exchange information with hospitals to ensure high-quality transitions in care.

“Previous studies demonstrate that IT sophistication can improve health outcomes for patients, such as reducing hospitalizations,” said Greg Alexander, professor in the Sinclair School of Nursing. “The benefits of IT sophistication do not differ based on geography; however, in this national assessment, we found a significant gap in IT sophistication between rural and urban areas.”

The study is the first national assessment of nursing home IT use since 2004. The researchers found that nursing homes located in metropolitan areas had greater IT laboratory capabilities for resident registration and admission. Urban nursing homes also were better at conducting and verifying medical tests, which can impact and improve patient care.

“As competition for experienced health care IT professionals increases in urban areas, rural health care organizations are finding it difficult to compete for needed talent,” Alexander said. “Policy makers need to be aware of the unique challenges facing rural health organizations and provide the necessary incentives to help rural nursing homes improve their IT sophistication. Improvement of IT sophistication will lead to better patient outcomes and a better quality of life for nursing home residents.”

Alexander recently received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar program grant to Australia from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. The grant will be used to study health informatics in nursing homes. He will be studying IT sophistication and quality measures at Macquarie University as part of a project to improve patient care in Australia’s nursing homes.

“The state of nursing home information technology sophistication in rural and non-rural US markets,” was published recently in the Journal of Rural Health. The research was supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (R01HS022497). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies.

Heads Up Students: Build Your Network Before You Graduate!

MU nursing graduates ready to serve Missouri

Ross Licklider decided he did not want to sit idly by while others were sick and hurting.

After serving five years in the U.S. Army and two deployments in Iraq, Licklider decided to attend MU's Sinclair School of Nursing. On Friday, he spoke to his fellow graduates as a class-nominated speaker at the school's Fall 2014 commencement.

Ross Licklider decided he did not want to sit idly by while others were sick and hurting.

After serving five years in the U.S. Army and two deployments in Iraq, Licklider decided to attend MU's Sinclair School of Nursing. On Friday, he spoke to his fellow graduates as a class-nominated speaker at the school's Fall 2014 commencement.

Licklider, now a graduate of Sinclair School of Nursing and member of Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society, will be spending his days treating patients at Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital.

Eighty students received their degree for bachelor of science in nursing during Friday afternoon's commencement. Two students, Alyssa Day and Claire Schimweg, graduated summa cum laude, with a GPA 3.9 or higher. Five students graduated magna cum laude, with a GPA of 3.8 to 3.89. Four students graduated cum laude; with a GPA of 3.7 to 3.79.

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